YOS 11, 69d

Rev.

16'         Donkey, donkey, quick onager

17'         – Yesterday, the winnower (blew) the chaff! –

18'         [May (the equids) n]ot ap[p]roach the borders of the field!

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19'         Incantation to prevent the enemy and the plunderer from approaching the barley.

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20'         4 incantations.

 General: The incantation is dealing with the threat posed to fields by wild asses who consume the freshly winnowed barely.

         16': ḫa-a-ru, with Cavigneaux/Al-Rawi 2002, 10–11, is ḫârum/ḫiārum, "donkey". si-ru ḫi-a-su-um (Cavigneaux/Al-Rawi 2002, 10: "..., rapide (?)") is to be connected to zerruIII, or serru, "desig. of an ass?", attested in Nuzi (CDA 446; AHw 1520b). This is the first attestation of this animal in OB sources.

         17’: Against Cavigneaux/Al-Rawi (2002, 10–11 who read am-ta ni-pa-a? mu-ta-nu-um and translate, "emportez la servante, o pestes (?)!"), we take pa-a (pû, "chaff") as the direct object of an elliptic verb governed by the subject mušannûm, an agricultural worker listed in OB Lu D 88: lú.še.bal = [mu]-ša-nu-um (sited in CAD M/2, 259). This profesion stands next to lú.še.bal = muštablakkitum, OB Lu D 83 (cited in CAD M/2, 283), a profession which very likely is a "sheaf-turner" (so CDA 223a). The line refers therefore to the worries of the field-owner that the roaming equids would not ravage the barely which just yesterday (amšāli) was winnowed.

         18': Against Cavigneaux/Al-Rawi (2002, 11 who read i-ta-ti-a būrā (U GÁNA ⌈TA-À⌉M) i te-[e]p-ḫi and translate "mes frontiers, sur une distance d'un bur dans toutes le directions', puisses-tu (puisse-t-elle?) bloquer (?)"), we take the verb at the end to be ṭeḫûm, mirrored in the next line's colophon.